Working with Wildlife Alliance and the Ministries of Environment and Forestry of Cambodia, Global Conservation is deploying new technologies including Vulcan Domain Awareness System (DAS), cellular trailcams, aerial surveillance and targeted ranger patrols for increasing the effectiveness of forest and wildlife protection across Core Wildlife Areas of the over 1 million acres new Cardamoms National Park.

Cambodia faces some of the highest deforestation rates of any country in the world, made even more apparent by the recent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report that corrupt government officials and military personnel in Vietnam are complicit in smuggling huge quantities of illegal timber from Cambodia.

Cardamoms National Park was gazetted and received legal protection on May 9, 2016, thus protecting one of Southeast Asia’s last great rainforests from further industrial development.

More than ever, strong ranger protection on the ground is a necessity. Global Park Defense is now needed in order to keep the rainforest canopy from being cleared and prevent the precious wildlife from being wiped out.

Field-based park and wildlife protection makes the difference between a wildlife sanctuary and an empty forest and ‘paper park’.

In the past ten years, over 40 private companies have attempted to claim land ownership of the Southern Cardamom rainforest land for their industrial projects. These companies in turn influenced government departments to lean toward forest conversion for economic development, rather than permanent conservation of the Southern Cardamoms for carbon sales.

Protecting the Cardamoms

Given the increased threats to most Protected Areas in the developing world today, Global Conservation’s support of Global Park Defense systems and technologies for the Cardamoms National Park will provide the much-needed role-model for other conservation groups and government departments located in threatened biodiverse regions.

Global Park Defense is an integrated program of technology, systems and training to move from random patrolling to targeted patrolling over large area of dense forests and jungles integrating:

Ground Surveillance

Aerial Surveillance

Informant Networks

Highly-trained Rangers Patrol

In the Cardamoms National Park, each of the six ranger stations has 14 men, including 2 judicial police officers in charge of legal fines and court cases, 10 Royale Gendarmerie officers in charge of law enforcement and security, and 2 Wildlife Alliance staff.

Ranger teams are dispatched into 2 units, alpha and bravo, that patrol simultaneously on river, roads and in the forest by foot, boats, and motorbikes and pick-up trucks for main transportation axis, bringing offenders to the court, transporting seized wildlife, snares, illegal timber, chainsaws and other contraband back to the station.

Each year, rangers conduct thousands of patrols, removing snares and rescuing live wildlife, seizing guns and chainsaws, and stopping land encroachment placing thousands of metal signs in illegal clearings, returning regularly to prevent plantations and constructions.

Wildlife Alliance is one of Asia’s most effective NGOs on the ground as a technical partner to the Cambodian government in the Cardamoms since 2002, going to battle to keep this rainforest standing by stopping private companies who were seeking permits to convert the area into large-scale industrial exploitation (titanium strip-mining, pulp and paper, palm oil).

Ecosystem Services

The Cardamom Range constitutes the most important forest watershed in Cambodia and provides water for 22 major waterways that are integral to the health of local wildlife and surrounding ecosystems. Receiving upwards of 170 inches of rain annually, the range also plays a key role in regulating the entire region’s climate. The further uncontrolled development of plantations can cause irreversible damage to the Cardamom’s water catchment capabilities and lead to the desiccation of wetlands and the sinking of underground water tables. In turn, lowered water levels would have major negative impacts on inland and coastal marine fisheries and agricultural livelihoods.

As a result of the ongoing presence of Wildlife Alliance in the landscape, the Cardamom Rainforest remains intact forming one of tropical Asia’s great forested landscapes. This is in contrast to elsewhere in Cambodia and Indochina where the forest is being degraded and cleared into fragmented islands.

The Cardamoms forms one of Asia’s last un-fragmented elephant corridors, and is a biodiversity gem with over 2,000 species of plants and more than 50 globally Redlisted species of vertebrates including critically endangered Sunda pangolin, Siamese crocodile, Royal turtle, endangered Asian elephant, pileated gibbon and dhole and vulnerable Malaysian sun and Asiatic black bears, gaur, clouded leopard, hog badger and otters.

Wildlife Alliance is implementing a comprehensive conservation model that combines law enforcement, reforestation, zoning and demarcation, and community education. By partnering with Cambodia’s Forestry Administration to create the Protected Forest, Wildlife Alliance is building upon a 15-year collaboration with the agency.

Community Involvement

Thirteen rural communities surround the perimeter of the Cardamoms National Park and Wildlife Alliance supports these villages to develop community-led organizations, community ecotourism, community rangers, and environmental education. These programs have already substantially raised the standard of living for participating communities.

Wildlife Alliance’s work with local communities has also increased local awareness of environmental threats. Because rainforests serve as critical resources for non-timber products and water supplies, residents view these forests as essential assets needed to support their livelihoods. Consequently, local people have demonstrated opposition to the entry of large-scale corporations and plantations.